It seems every week a new NRL expansion rumour is unearthed.
Wellington revealed their ambitious bid last week, calling themselves the South Pacific Cyclones with home games shared by Wellington and Fiji.
The Fijians have a passionate fan-base and have participated in the World Sevens and made the semi-finals of the 2008 World Cup. Papua New Guinea’s successful entry into the Queensland Cup proves expanding the NRL beyond Australia and New Zealand has potential.
Closer to home, the Central Coast Bears keep putting their hands up for readmission.
The North Sydney Bears were one of NSWRL’s foundation clubs back in 1908. The Bears won two premierships, in 1921 and 1922, and nothing else for the next 77 years. They made the ‘premiership final’ in 1943 in the days before mandatory grand finals, losing to Newtown. They were competitive in the 1990s, but never made it past the preliminary final.
The Bears were victims of the Super League war. Staying loyal to the ARL, they were squeezed out upon reunification and merged with Manly. A powerhouse team of the nineties, the Sea Eagles dominated the Northern Eagles, dividing home games between Brookvale Oval and Gosford (instead of North Sydney Oval).
The Eagles played three seasons (2000-2002) but never made the finals.
Manly were reinstated for the 2003 NRL season and the Bears were relegated to the NSW Cup. The Bears played Parramatta in the 2007 NSWRL Premier League grand final, narrowly losing. With the NSW Cup and Queensland Cup used as pipelines to the NRL, the Bears are the current Souths feeder club, following affiliations with the New Zealand Warriors and Melbourne.
Veteran Bear Greg Florimo is CEO of the rebooted Central Coast Bears and a vocal supporter of their readmission. The Bears have corporate backing from Central Coast and North Shore businesses, an established stadium in Bluetongue and have links with local junior clubs and schools with 23 junior clubs in their catchment area.
Considering the local connections, surely Gosford will forget the Northern Eagles nightmare and embrace the Bears as their team?
If the Bears return, the romanticism of the concept – the grand old Bears are back – will be milked by every media outlet in the country. Nine will have a field day, feeding off 90 years of history. The rivalry with Manly will immediately be resumed and – more importantly – the old North Sydney fans will pull out their faded Bears jumpers and flock back to the footy, especially when the Bears play in Sydney.
What if the Bears’ entry – as the 11th NSW NRL team – came at the expense of the weaker Sydney clubs? When the Hunter Mariners folded after Super League, their best players joined the Melbourne Storm.
The Bears could play a similar role, absorbing the stars from poorly performed Sydney teams. In turn this would force struggling clubs to improve or die, which could strengthen the competition, by increasing the amount of competitive teams or dropping the deadweight.
There’s no doubt the Bears have a strong case for an NRL return. They have an established home ground, a healthy junior system, a presence in the NSW Cup and retain the traditional North Sydney links.
The Bears have plenty of expansion competition, with the Brisbane Bombers and West Coast Pirates (Perth) the favourites. Brisbane deserves a second team to compete with the Broncos and provide weekly NRL games at Suncorp Stadium, while Perth needs to be revisited for a more credible national competition.
The South Pacific Cyclones are worth a serious look, at least to strengthen the game in New Zealand and Fiji.
Have the Bears done enough to beat the Bombers, Pirates and Cyclones? We’ll have to wait and see.
81paling
Roar Rookie
Really thenit would be important for them to embrace their old heartland of North Sydney then also to add not only to the numbers but, there is a lot of money in that area
Matt from Armidale
Roar Rookie
How about bringing in a genuine 2nd division comp and promotion / relegation? It would make the bottom of the ladder genuinely exciting again. Div 2 could revive the Bears, Newtown, split Wests and Balmain up again (I bet the fans would prefer their old club back in Division 2 with a chance of promotion), some Brisbane teams plus Perth, Darwin, Wellington and PNG. Or doesn't that work in our US franchise style NRL?
81paling
Roar Rookie
Not sure why it is that simple, if there are 250,000 people in Sydney who would follow the Bears yet only 30,000 in NZ or Perth why would you not put the team in Sydney. Just because there are people in an area does not mean they will follow rugby league otherwise you would put a team in China.
Terry from Nyngan
Guest
Did a google for Bears 1920s teams. Is this right that league was played in Melbourne in the 1920s until some RU types got in their & switched the VRL to RU? https://rugbyvictoria.wordpress.com/rugby-union-in-victoria-between-the-wars-1919-39/
3 Hats
Guest
Have you ever travelled to Melbourne Ken? Yes, the name Storm may be a bit tacky, but they have some terrific thunder STORMS down there! The Storm is the perfect name for them as it rains non-stop, most of the time,
turbodewd
Guest
Reintroducing the Bears is fine. But you cant have them reborn as another NSW team. Its that simple. Qld, NZ and Perth all deserve teams before NSW. NSW is full.
James T
Guest
Is north Sydney more viable than existing sides being propped up? I would imagine they are. If Norths came back the north shore may be able to get a decent stadium to share with manly. The north shore is under represented but it would require relocation of another side as Sydney is already at saturation. Also if the nrl is going to prop up teams, I can't believe it's not a team based in Perth where there's potential growth.
3 Hats
Guest
Tim, Yes Norths are playing as South Sydney second Grade team, but they are NO feeder team to Souths. If anything the reverse is true as Souths feed our extra players and OUR overflowing local juniors into North Sydney. Please tell me If and WHEN a local Norths Junior was added to the South Sydney system and went on and played First Grade for Souths? P.S. they are NOT a feeder team for the Roosters.
3 Hats
Guest
I have been advocating for years to relocate the Roosters, No Juniors and no soul, and they seem to be poaching the juniors at Wyong. I would prefer Redcliffe and/or Ipswich than the Bombers! Yes Dragons to the GONG fulltime. Not sure about Adelaide though, they are more AFL mad than Victorians, so I have heard from the locals. Soccer is big in Adelaide, plenty of ex-pats POMS. 6 Clubs in Sydney sounds right. Manly, Souths, Cronulla, Parramatta, Penrith and Canterbury Bring in Central Queensland.
Parra
Guest
Geographically, the Central Coast is generally considered to include the region bounded by the Hawkesbury River in the south, the Watagan Mountains in the west and the southern end of Lake Macquarie in the north.[3]
Blades
Guest
Maybe not the best idea from a financial perspective, but there's no doubt culling the Bears hurt league in North Sydney. Know a lot of people north of the bridge who gave up on NRL after their team was cut.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
I'm an old Bears fan from the days of the Big Bear Supermarket. I would dearly like to see them back but the NRL has some hard decisions to make. Firstly, any side going under should be allowed to go and not be propped up. Relocation won't work, look at the Northern Eagles. If the Dragons retain their spot, play them in Wollongong not Sydney. There then goes one Sydney club. The Tigers are a basket case and if left alone, will go the way of Glebe. Two sides that should be looked at to come in are a Perth side and a second Brisbane team. Grant has said there are not enough players for expansion. I don't know about that, look at the number of NRL players in the ESL.
Tom Cole
Guest
BRING BACK PERTH WE NEED THE PIRATES IN THE NRL
81paling
Roar Rookie
Hahaa! "no one in particular" has got it 100 percent correct. The people who are demanding the NRL give their clubs more money are Nick Politis worth over $350m, the Penn family worth over a $billion, Gould from the Panthers who bring in over $100m a year and others from the dogs who also briing in over $100m a year.
81paling
Roar Rookie
Problem is they moved on to other sports not other rugby league teams and AFL got a strong foothold as a direct result. The only chance of getting them back is bringing back the Bears. However from the north Pylon of the harbour bridge to the Southern Shore's of the great lakes there are close to 1 million people. Are you only counting the Northshore or Gosford?
81paling
Roar Rookie
My understanding of nothing being ruled out as far as the Bears went was that it could not be ruled out that the Gold and Central Coast's plus North Sydney district could in fact all share a part of the Bears. Obviously they play all QLD rivals and non Sydney teams other than Newcastle on the Gold Coast. Newcastle, Parra, Wests Tiges & Manly on the Central Coast and then Souts & Roosters at North Sydney. The only question is would the grounds be large enough to hold local derby's like that every week?
Parra
Guest
Agree there is some hard decision making ahead on rationalisation/expansion. Grant has indicated expansion is off for the near future, as I think given its importance time is needed to think it through properly. My guess is less teams, more quality games close competition etc and a national presence, which means Rationalisation of Sydney teams.however second tier is likely to expand that could include expansion areas, not a bad idea to shore up grass roots especially in country nsw. Looking forward to richardsons whole of game review.
Fivehole
Guest
Not all have moved on. Still got the bears jerseys, but only really watch rep games - that would all change if the bears came back
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
There's plenty of talent. Just not enough of it in Sydney to make all the existing teams there look good.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
Move the Roosters up there, move the Dragons to the Gong full time and drop the Tigers (and demerge the Magpies) back to NSWRL where they started. Promote an historic QRL club like Redcliffe to the NRL, bring in the Pirates and maybe move the Bears to Adelaide. Then we might look like a truly National competition.